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Aperture Card Scanning and Conversion to Electronic Format

An aperture card is a standard Hollerith encoded punch card that acts as a transport for a 35mm transparent slide. Typically, aperture cards are used to store engineering drawings and many organisations in the engineering industry have years of technical drawings held on aperture card archives.

Microfilm technology has been around for few decades and once offered organised storage for organisations, however, there are some drawbacks to preserving drawings on aperture cards;

Aperture cards can only be used and viewed by one person at a time.

If the aperture card is lost or damaged, the actual drawing is then lost forever.

It is also a very time consuming process to view the drawing from the aperture card microfilm as the aperture card viewer needs to be set and focused each time

The specific document may also be hard to locate.

Aperture card readers are not very reliable and often break, which therefore increases the maintenance cost.

There are many advantages to scanning aperture cards into electronic format. The main advantages of aperture card scanning and conversion to electronic format are:

Instant access to your digital documents.

The aperture card slides are backed up making them safe from damage and loss.

Scanned aperture cards can be shared across the business network simultaneously.

Stored aperture cards can be disposed of saving on storage space.

Aperture Cards Scanning

At our aperture card scanning bureau, we are able to scan engineering and technical drawings which are maintained on aperture cards at a high resolution creating a quality image and capturing the intricate detail from the drawing. After the initial raw scanning process, all scanned images are put through image processing which enhances the image quality for poor and aged drawings and cards, as well optimising the file size for shared access.

Aperture Cards Scanning Images Samples for Review

Aperture card samples are submitted for review and approval by our clients. Prior to the start of the project, rules are established for the scanning work. The scanned aperture card drawing image standards are then used for comparison purposes to assure that quality and production standards are being met throughout the scanning and conversion process.

Aperture Card Indexing

Once the aperture card scanning process is complete, aperture cards are then indexed and an electronic library using the following categories:

Drawing Number / Part Number

Issue Number / Date

Drawing Description

Client Name

Storage Medium

On completion of the scanning and indexing process, our strict Quality Assurance (QA) staff check each aperture card image prior to its release. Once released from the QA section, aperture cards are stored onto CDs, DVDs or USBs. Our clients can copy the data on to their local network for shared access.

Free Viewing Software

As part of our aperture card scanning services, we also supply our FREE image retrieval software to our clients on a CD format. Once the CD is inserted into your PC, a small search program will appear on your screen, all you need to do is simply type in the drawing number or title you require. Within seconds the drawing is displayed on your screen. If you wish, the drawing can be printed, plotted, viewed or even e-mailed.

If you have an archive of aperture cards and would like to convert your aperture cards to electronic computer files so you can easily access them, please contact us:Tel: 0161 832 7991E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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